Seven persons were arrested on Wednesday from two offices in Bhowanipore and Bowbazar that were allegedly duping people by taking money against false promises of jobs abroad.
Police identified one office as Dooars Valley, situated on the fifth floor of a building on 60B, Chowringhee Road under Bhowanipore police station; and another as Euronics Pvt Ltd on the fourth floor of Electronics Centre at 1/1A, Biplabi Anukul Chandra Street in Bowbazar.
An officer said the employees of these two offices used to call their prospective clients using mobile phones and would make false promises of getting them lucrative jobs.
“We have received several complaints from people who have been duped by these purported job agencies,” said an officer.
The police said it was a common fraud these days when fraudsters send text messages to their potential targets trying to lure them with job offers with high value packages.
In such cases, people are asked to call back at specific mobile numbers to know more about the job offer or to avail the job offer.
“Those who fall into this trap are induced to share money with false promises of getting them lucrative jobs,” said an officer in Lalbazar.
A case under sections of cheating, forgery, fraud and criminal conspiracy has been initiated with Hare Street police station.
The police said they were looking for more people involved in running the two offices.
4 held for trafficking
Four persons, including a youth from Burdwan and three suspected Bangladeshi nationals, were arrested from a Sealdah-bound Rajdhani Express on Tuesday for allegedly being a part of a human trafficking racket.
The Uttar Pradesh anti-terror squad intercepted them at Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction (Mughalsarai Junction) and arrested them at the UP ATS headquarters in Lucknow, said G.K. Goswami, inspector-general of police (UP ATS).
The police said, Mithun Mandal, 23, from Kalna in Burdwan district, was part of a larger racket that had been providing Bangladeshi nationals, who have illegally entered India without authorised documents, with forged identities.
“The modus operandi of this group is to provide illegal immigrants with forged identity documents using which they can travel abroad as Indian citizens,” said an officer.
The police said Mandal worked in a travel and tour company named “European Tour and Travel” in Burdwan.
The cops said they were on a lookout for the other operatives of the gang.
The three others have been identified as Bangladeshi nationals — Shaon Ahmed, Mominur Islam and Mehendi Hassan — who had allegedly illegally entered India on August 16. They were heading for Bengal to allegedly procure forged documents that could establish their identity as Indians.
Ahmed was travelling with the forged name of Pintu Das, Islam as Romi Pal and Hassan as Bapi Roy, an officer said.
The police said they have seized five mobile phones, three Indian passports and four Aadhaar cards — whose authenticity was yet to be verified, 12 ATM cards, one Pan card, three voter id cards and one Delhi metro card from the four.